Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Ultimate Speed – Strategy & Guide

Hot Wheels is one of the best-known brands, if not the most, of car miniatures, both among the oldest members of the house (remember that it has more than fifty years behind it), as well as the youngest ones. That is why it is not surprising that all kinds of merch, movies, series or video games have appeared throughout its life, but since ours is the latter, we are going to talk about Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Ultimate Speed, the latest release about these famous miniatures of all types of vehicles, but this time based on the series with the same name that Netflix launched in 2024 and which is currently still broadcast.

Races for the whole family

As we have already said, the age range of people who enjoy Hot Wheels is very wide due to their long (literal) career, but this time, we are faced with a video game that has a very clear objective target: the little ones in the house. And these will be the ones who will most enjoy driving in the game with the protagonists of the series and, due to certain differences with other games in the series (such as the great Unleashed 2), it really can become more accessible for fans of the series, since they will be able to choose between the six protagonists of the series: Coop, Spark, Mac, Brights, Axle and Cruise. To provide a bit of variety or depth, each racer will have their own speed, handling or stunt statistics, as will the different cars we have at our disposal.

The game has five game modes, which we can access through a playable hub without having to enter the menus. Of the five game modes, although very similar to each other, the logical thing is a driving game, but they could have tried to innovate something with one of them. It could be said that the main one is the racing championship, which consists of twelve tests enlivened with some cutscenes and with confrontations with some bosses sent by Professor Rearvisor.

The other game modes are champions cup, free race and speed test. Of these three, the one with the most buzz, so to speak, would be the champions cup, in which we will face four races to try to win the gold cup. It should be noted that both the Champions Cup and the free race mode can be played with up to three friends locally, which is something to be appreciated because the local game mode is being lost. On the other hand, the online mode has fallen by the wayside, which could have provided a little more variety to the game. And finally we would have the circuit editor, which is always a very welcome extra given the possibilities it offers us. On this occasion, the creation of circuits has been simplified compared to Unleashed 2, making it as accessible as possible for the youngest members of the house.

On the other hand, we will also have a good number of cars at our disposal, some from the beginning of the game and others to unlock by meeting certain requirements. The games are based on the Netflix series license, so don’t expect to find your favorite car here. On the other hand, we can also customize them with different stickers that will give us a type of improvement each one; Yes, we can only add one per race.

Fast, fun but with some buts

Playably, it seemed a bit strange to me, with a learning curve that can be frustrating, which seems strange to me considering the target audience of the game. Let me explain: when you are playing, when taking a curve it is too easy to go against the side of the track, so I tried the iconic drifts in other games in the Mattel franchise, but even so, these are also difficult for me to master. Coming from Unleashed 2, I expected something more similar in terms of playability, since it seems much more accessible to both children and adults.

Technical section

Graphically, what stands out the most is the recreation of the characters from the animated series and little else. The circuits lack spark, details; They don’t feel like you’re playing a Hot Wheels game. The lack of typical effects, or the way of representing the dangers of the track, are several steps behind other games in the franchise. For example, the classic element that moves from one side of the stage to the other, being a potential danger for the player, here the vast majority are simply represented by a sign, which makes the circuit feel empty, monotonous.

In the sound section we have the voices of the actors of the series, which is always a plus, but it would not have hurt if it had the voices of the cast in Spanish. The music is just fine, although it can get tiring after a while. On the other hand, the sound effects of the cars seem quite generic, as well as the sound effects of the collisions.

Conclusion

Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Ultimate Speed has, as we have already pointed out several times throughout the review, a very specific audience. Beyond that, both in terms of options and variety of game modes, vehicles, etc., it is not the best option within the franchise, unless you have a little fan of the saga at home. And even in that case, I would go for the great Unleashed 2 if what you want is a Hot Wheels video game.